Sault - What's the story?

I think it's part of the appeal, is that none of it rests on crazy production, or hides behind it. The drum sounds are super dry and attainable if you've done any kind of home recording. But it sounds like people playing instruments in an unadorned and refreshing way (like I'm sure it's all stacked overdubs, but not a lot of loops or programming). It lives & dies on the writing & performances, which are foregrounded by the straightforward production. And it consistently does the deceptively simple trick of making great songs out of the fewest possible number of elements.

I love the production on these, sounds to me like they’re trying to sound like a late 70’s band from the post-punk, punk funk, punk dance or whatever it’s called era.

It’s a very conscious decision too, as evidenced by Inflo’s work with other artists.... You can try the Cleo Sol album if you want a lusher, fuller sound by the same people.

But yeah I haven’t tried playing one after another but I think you can play SAULT songs in between ESG, Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, et al and it wouldn’t sound out of place.

yeah that's what makes them so distinct to me, the way they combine that 70s dance-punk/post-punk sound with neo-soul etc.

really enjoying this

maybe a less hip reference than ESG etc and i'm sure it's probably unintentional and just a coincidence

but sometimes the songs are pretty skeletal, with just a drum loop and those great, dead sounding bass guitar loops remind me a little bit of sleaford mods

haha waited too long for payday and the physical versions are sold out again. oops. would love to see someone help them get some better distribution going.

i love rise so much

both amused and amazed by the coincidence of you bringing up Keiyaa's record - which is brilliant, it's high on my eoy list, but no better than (black is), imo- and just finishing reading an interview with her, where she makes kind of similar points to that thread of yours from a hundred years ago, about the marginalization of black music and black audiences in the US

― where do all these unsold amps go? (gaudio), Saturday, December 5, 2020 5:29 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw I like (rise) significantly more than (black is) which I find kind of lacking in songs, with a few notable exceptions

I tend to find that (black is) has more individual songs that jump out at me but (rise) flows better for me as an album & I tend to listen to it right the way through more often. Having said that, Strong is probably my overall favourite song from the two albums.

This is another thread where I don't have much to add but Sault have definitely been one of my biggest listens over the last few months. I hadn't heard anything by them prior to around October, so hearing all four of the albums plus going through the Sault-associated stuff like Cleo Sol solo, Little Simz & Michael Kiwanuka has been a lot of fun and has probably helped open me up to new music generally after going through a phase of mostly listening to older things.

I would say that so far nothing that I've heard involving Inflo or other Sault people outside of Sault has grabbed me quite as much as what they've done as a group, but there's still plenty that's excellent, and the Inflo arrangement/production style with the bass & drum grooves foregrounded is definitely very recognisable across the different projects (and kind of addictive to me). Thanks to everyone on thread for drawing out the links. Still need to give Kid Sister's solo output a shot at some point.

Enjoying the Keiyaa album a lot btw, thanks for the recommendation.

KEXP 2020 Top 10 - (Rise) #6, (Black Is) #7.

pfork doubling down with bnm-ing neither really nailing the lid on its tastemaker coffin.

Look forward to spending more time with Sault over my xmas break. When I've played them a bit so far, it just makes me put on the Simz album, which i love. I was curious what pitchfork did with that and it's weirdly right between today's two Sault scores at 8.1, also no BNM. yeesh lol

I guess it's hard to put BNM on something that came out 7 months ago... fairly glowing review otherwise

The review is quality. Pitchfork's bizarre lateness/indifference is still dumb.

Lol why would they even review them at this point? Did they felt left out from all the EOY lists placing these albums at their top 10?

You guys should take the W

We should be glad that they bothered to at least cover it at this point, as opposed to an album that was completely ignored at the time like "Ten Love Songs" was.

Vote in the poll!

I know I’m a broken record at this point, but baffling to see these folks getting an absolutely massive year end buzz going but it being impossible to buy a single physical copy of either of their albums. I feel bad for them, seems like they are leaving quite a bit of money on the table by having everything out of print already.

“their 2020 albums”, I should say.

yeah it's weird

bandcamp has a thing now where you can do a Kickstarter type pledge for reissues so if you hit X number of pre-orders you will repress, takes the risk out of it

I mean, I’m assuming it’s a thing with a tiny label that was not at all prepared for the huge reception, but I’d love to see them get some better distribution.

it's also not always easy to get stuff pressed quickly esp if you're independent

Oh absolutely, I don’t blame the band or the label, I just feel bad for them because there is clearly a big demand right now. I know I’m not the only one hitting their bandcamp up several times a day hoping they announce some new pressings.

I've heard some reviews on discogs pointing out that the pressing isn't great and that it sounds better played from a phone. Anyone who has the vinyls can confirm on the quality of the pressing? I have 5 and 7 and they sound great to me. I don't know if its better to wait to order these pair of 'Untitled' until they have sorted out the high demand.

Hell, I’d settle for even CDs at this point, but those are sold out as well.

vinyl pressings sound good.

lead times for vinyl pressings are very, very long just now, not helped by covid outbreaks at pressing plants.

wow, where are the plants? I'm actually surprised at the number of things that are getting pressed given the circumstances and the Apollo masters fire.

The Apollo masters fire made no impact on European pressings. All Euro pressing plants I know of have the longest backlogs I've ever heard of due to a convergence of factors, and then Covid has just exacerbated that. I'd rather not mention specific plants.

"...reviews on discogs pointing out that the pressing isn't great and that it sounds better played from a phone..."

I ordered the repressings(?) listed on Bandcamp and to my surprise the "**Shipping Mid Jan 2021**" vinyl arrived just after Santa (stateside no less).

Without perusing discogs for feedback on the non-black wax, I was just after saying to a friend that these black vinyl releases (some if not all pressed at Optimal) might be the quietest/cleanest new vinyl I've heard in ages.

Dynamics well present and well presented.

tl;dr, get them when/if you can.

The black vinyl of all four impresses with, by way of comparison, the 5 and 7 already in your library, slightly freer of non-distracting-but-not-unexpected-given-the-medium sonic artifacts.

finally getting into black is. dont hear ESG at all, unless you only have indie/post punk references and had to find something that sounded vaguely close. skipped a load of messages so no idea if dangermouse was involved, but def does have his 90s breakbeat sort of aesthetic. i know they are british, but the singer definitely doesnt sound british. or at least, what she is singing definitely sounds very american.

makes me think of king a bit tbh. or any number of neo/indie/alt soul voices. love her voice.

if it isnt DM, its someone who is obviously a fan. def has that '90s plug in' vibe to the production.

danger mouse isn't involved, it's all produced & co-written by inflo. there are two lead singers and one of them, kid sister, is american. the other lead singer is cleo sol

inflo has worked on other stuff with danger mouse a fair bit though so there's your connection

also hear some shades of corinne bailey rae and lianne la havas.

One of their tracks (“Free”) is on the official Inauguration playlist

The first two records ('5' and '7') are more minimalist than the 'Untitled' records. Still not especially ESG-ish, but the comparisons stem from those records, not the newer ones.

"i just want to dance" is definitely the most esg-ish thing on either of their 2020 albums

Yep the ESG bassline comparisons and the Jaki Liebezeit-style drums I mentioned are regarding 5 and 7. The Untitled records are more influenced by disco and funk than by post-punk and krautrock

E.g: “Let Me Go”

ont hear ESG at all, unless you only have indie/post punk references and had to find something that sounded vaguely close.

sorry but that is nonsense. 5 in particular definitely has tracks that have an echo of ESG (intentional or otherwise) in some of the basslines, the way the drums swing, the fills and how stripped down they are.

On black is?

Read the post, the answer is right there.

5 and 7 are the name of their first two albums in case you think we’re talking about track numbers?

investigating their other stuff. yes, i just want to dance does sound like ESG, my bad.

this album makes me think a bit of 4hero too actually.

that's a good connection

I prefer 5 and 7 to Rise and Black Is, mainly because I find 5 & 7 to be really fun and the spoken interludes in Rise and Black Is don't have replay value to me (this is true about spoken interludes or skits on any album in history, for me). I'd def like to pick these up whenever they get a repress, if they are of the quality the Cleo Sol album is, which I recently got. It was expensive as fuck to order from the US (I think it came to $60) but the pressing sounds amazing, the cover and booklet are beautiful.